MONTREAL — Us mere mortals wouldn’t be able to go to an office job with the facial injury Chris Kelly suffered last Monday, let alone play in an NHL game.

Although he reportedly didn’t suffer a fracture, Kelly has an ugly shiner and plenty of swelling for his efforts.

And tonight he had to go with a full cage over his face in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with Montreal at the Bell Centre.

Well, if his performance in the Bruins’ series-tying 5-4 overtime win is any indication how he handles the pain, the Bruins might be willing to bang up Kelly’s face a little more as this series and the playoffs roll on.

The pain failed to slow Kelly down on the ice or dampen his enthusiasm after the victory.

Kelly scored the game-tying goal with 6:18 left in regulation and then set up Michael Ryder’s game-winning goal 1:59 into overtime. The goal was his first scored in this series on a non-empty net. He has now matched his total from 24 regular-season games in a Bruins uniform.

“I think we were just kind of getting the puck to the net and tried to outnumber them and it popped out to me and I whacked at it and it went 5-hole,” said Kelly about his goal.

On the game-winning play, Kelly retrieved Rich Peverley’s wide shot off the glass and then feed it to Ryder sitting at the left of the slot.

“I was definitely excited to see ‘Rides’ get the puck backdoor there and put it in,” said Kelly. “I thought our line didn’t have a great first period, but I thought we bounced back well in the second and so on.”

For the night, the Kelly-Peverley-Ryder line combined for eight points. They were on the ice when Montreal scored the first goal of the game, but in the second period Ryder tied the game and the trio continued to improve from there.

“Besides the first shift that those guys had, they were really good the rest of the night,” said head coach Claude Julien. “And he was one of those guys. Michael scored two goals, but Kelly scores one and gets an assist on another one. That whole line was really good for us tonight. You need those kinds of things in the playoffs. You need guys to step up.”

Seguin, if given plenty of time and space, may score a goal. Paille, if given time and space, may score a goal, but what Paille will do is hit, go to the danger areas, screen the goalie, and get in front of a slapshot. I haven’t seen those talents in Seguin. Paille is not perfect or flashy but fills the role of a defensive forward very well. This is the playoffs and we already have a Michael Ryder. Next season Ryder will be gone and will have Tyler Seguin to take his place.

Right here.
Did anyone else see Danny Paille on the ice? That guy couldn’t play in my beer league. Seriously, get him out. See him killing penalties giving up the easy feed to the high slot? The guy is a liability and offers ZERO offense. Get Seguin in the lineup and all of a sudden you have skill, speed and a second PP unit.

I would also like to see Seguin but know last night was why Julien opted to go with experience over youth. I have not been a fan of Ryder all season, but most of my lack of adoration comes from the size of his cap hit.

I wonder if part of the success of that line though in addition to just skating better (Ryder was definitely playing better last night and I actually noticed him doing good things away from the puck) is that the Habs can’t defensively match up well against this line when this line is firing on all cylinders.

This line needs to carry whatever it was they brought last night into Saturday and please, please, please let the Krejci line show up for a game.

Absolutely love how its the two guys that the Seguin worshipsers have been crying for to sit down in his stead, that actually won the game. Hopefully the kid learned from these two worthless slugs. Lord knows the Seguin boy band doesn’t get it.

So psyched for Ryder. That snap to the top corner was beautiful.

Love this team. Love ‘em more if Marchand and Krecji are accepted into finishing school. That short few minutes around the net was painful. Marchand, Boychuk and Krecji, please take a little time this offseason and learn how to lift the puck off the ice. You are so off the hook – and you owe your teammates dinner!!!!!!!!

The last time any of these players wore a cage they were dominant players. Maybe Chris was having flashbacks. It’s funny how some guys get dinged up and they seem to respond. His legs were lively and he was around the net at both ends.